Editorial

What’s your priority: Jobs or plastic bag ban?

The Times, Jul 29, 2010

The lowly plastic grocery bag has emerged as the next symbolic battleground as cities and states around the country rush to prove their environmental credentials.

The city of Portland, most recently, has debated – and backed away from - a proposal by Mayor Sam Adams to ban plastic bags and impose a 5-cent fee on papers sacks. Portland’s discussion of this issue follows an attempt in Seattle to establish a fee for grocery bags – a law that ultimately was overturned by voters.

Meanwhile, Beaverton state Sen. Mark Hass, a Democrat, has joined with Sen. Jason Atkinson, a conservative Republican from Central Point, to say that a prohibition on plastic bags should be mandated throughout Oregon.

Similar to Adams’ ban ideal, Hass and Atkinson’s legislative proposal would require retailers to charge consumers a nickel for every paper bag they issue instead.

Although Portland is putting the issue aside for now, there’s no doubt that the pressure to ban so-called “single-use” bags will increase. Adams is delaying his efforts in Portland only because Hass and Atkinson hope to get the 2011 legislative session to support their mandate.

We agree with Hass that consideration of any regulation of grocery bags ought to made at the state level. It would be very confusing for grocery stores and customers if, for example, Tigard, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tualatin, Sherwood, Portland and a myriad of other cities each had their own rules about grocery bags.

But this issue should rise above the subject of statewide uniformity.

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